In the process of shipping an item from one location to another, a protective packaging material is typically placed in the shipping case, or box, to fill any voids and/or to cushion the item during the shipping process. Some conventional commonly used protective packaging materials are plastic foam peanuts and plastic bubble pack. These plastic materials are usually discharged from dispensers integrated into packaging systems. In many packaging systems the set-up may allow, or even demand, horizontal dispersement of the plastic protective material. In other packaging systems, vertical dispersement of the protective material may be necessary to accommodate horizontal conveyor belts, which may be positioned very closely together. The plastic foam peanuts and plastic bubble pack and the dispensers of this plastic material have, for the most part, been compatible with a variety of packaging systems.
Despite this wide range of compatibility, conventional plastic protective materials are not without disadvantages. For example, one drawback of plastic bubble film is that it usually includes a polyvinylidene chloride coating. This coating prevents the plastic film from being safely incinerated, creating disposal difficulties for some industries. Additionally, both the plastic foam peanuts and the plastic bubble pack have a tendency to generate a charge of static electricity attracting dust from the surrounding packaging site. These plastic materials sometimes themselves produce a significant amount of packaging "lint." These dust and lint particles are generally undesirable and may even be destructive to sensitive merchandise such as electronic or medical equipment.
But perhaps the most serious drawback of plastic bubble wrap and/or plastic foam peanuts is their effect on our environment. Quite simply, these plastic packaging materials are not biodegradable and thus they cannot avoid further multiplying our planet's already critical waste disposal problems. The non-biodegradability of these packaging materials has become increasingly important in light of many industries adopting more progressive policies in terms of environmental responsibility.
These and other disadvantages of conventional plastic packaging materials has made paper protective packaging material a very popular alterative. Paper is biodegradable, recyclable and renewable; making it an environmentally responsible choice for conscientious industries. Additionally, paper may be safely incinerated by the recipients of the products. Furthermore, paper protective packaging material is perfect for particle-sensitive merchandise, as its clean dust-free surface is resistant to static cling.
While paper in sheet form could possibly be used as a protective packaging material, it is usually preferable to convert the sheets of paper into a relatively low density pad-like cushioning dunnage product. This conversion may be accomplished by a cushioning dunnage machine, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,509,798; 3,603,216; 3,655,500; 3,779,039; 4,026,198; 4,109,040; 4,717,613; and 4,750,896. The entire disclosures of these patents, which are owned by the assignee of the present application, are hereby incorporated by reference.
A conversion machine such as is disclosed in the above-identified patents includes a stock supply assembly, a forming assembly, and a pulling/connecting assembly. The stock assembly, which is located upstream from the forming assembly, supplies the sheet-like stock material from a stock roll to the forming assembly. The forming assembly causes inward rolling of the lateral edges of the sheet-like material into a generally spiral-like form whereby a continuous unconnected strip having two lateral pillow-like portions separated by a thin central band is formed. The pulling/connecting assembly is located downstream of the forming assembly and pulls the stock material from the stock supply assembly and through the forming assembly to form the unconnected strip. The pulling/connecting assembly also connects the strip along its central band to form a coined strip of pad-like cushioning material. A machine may also include a cutting assembly to cut this coined strip into cut sections of a desired length.
A conversion machine such as is set forth in the above cited patents is designed to be positioned in a generally horizontal self-standing manner. To this end, the machine includes a frame structure including legs for supporting the machine on the packaging site floor. The actual embodiments of the machines illustrated in these patents are approximately 42 inches high, 36 inches wide and 67 inches long. The stock supply assembly is mounted at an upper end of the frame which is about at waist-level of most workers, thereby permitting safe reloading of stock rolls onto the machine. The forming assembly and the pulling/connecting assembly are positioned at approximately the same level as the stock supply assembly so that the discharged coined strip of pad-like cushioning material may be easily manipulated by a worker. The motors powering the pulling/connecting assembly and/or the cutting assembly are mounted at the lower end of the frame, vertically offset from the stock supply assembly, the forming assembly and the pulling/connecting assembly.
With some packaging systems, this frame structure mounting arrangement may be compatible and may perhaps be efficient. However, many of the packaging systems currently using plastic protective packaging material require both horizontal and vertical positioning of the conversion machine. Thus a need remains for a conversion machine which may be easily positioned in both a horizontal and a vertical manner and thereby incorporated into a variety of packaging systems.
Due to the increased popularity of paper protective packaging material, other improvements of cushioning dunnage conversion machines are necessary or at least desirable. For example, because the pulling/connecting assembly is located downstream of the forming assembly, a new roll of stock must be manually threaded through the various components of the forming assembly before automatic operation of the machine may begin. Features which would aid in the manual threading of the machine would be helpful in increasing the operating efficiency of the packaging system. Additionally, features which would further promote the cushioning quality of the resulting dunnage product are almost always desirable.